Eddie Howe

[GideonShandy]

Oh yeah, that ghastly woman who brought the club to its knees. 

[Menace]

At least with Amanda there was a sense of community and family. Ever since her and Mehrdad have left, there has been a huge gap in communication between the higher ups and the supporters. They are missed.

[Shush]

Still massively back and believe in Howe, but PSR has massively hindered us from elevating squad depth and replacing deadwood.

 

I can pick faults in his lack of a plan B, but when his plan A is in form we can beat anyone.

 

His ability to get better performances from poorer players has been excellent.

 

Tactically he does adjust but it's generally smaller details than overall shape. Arsenal 2nd leg is only real one I can point to that was specifically different all game.

 

I just think we are seeing the real desired outcome of PSR in effect. Our inability to invest quickly enough to ensure we have a squad that means we have game changing quality on the bench. We are one injury to Isak away from being a team that isn't top 8, let alone top 4.

 

Bruno seems like he's finally hitting a slump in form, but he's been an ever present warrior since the start and never had a proper cover or chance to rotate and rest. Tonali is great and now can give that relief, but seems to come at a time where Willock is regressing fast and Joelinton blows hot and cold. Hopefully Miley is the answer, but we are missing a real pacey atheletic and natural number 6.

 

I will never raise a doubt about Howe again after start of season like I did, as he not only fixed it, the streak he went on was incredible to turn us back to top 4 contenders. Still a chance for a cup win and European finish - we ain't at our best but trust Eddie to give it a great shot.

 

It is squeaky bum time. Will the likes of Isak and Bruno want to go again if we can't improve the squad again for next year enough? It all hinges on if we make Europe. All I see is more and more ageing first team players which will cost a fortune to replace, let alone sorting out the depth issues. PSR forces you to either take a long term youth route which is no guarantees, or spend your wad on the key positions that you need to strengthen. We can't raise capital fast enough to do it unless our scouting is on point and we shop extremely well. It's frustrating as hell watching our own youth purchase score against us yesterday because of PSR when he and Murphy could have been rotating and competition for that spot.

 

[Shush]

Also, the evolution and improvement of teams like Forest, Bournemouth, Fulham etc. has made it hyper competitive very quickly.

[Matt1892]

We can blame PSR for not being able to compete with City, Liverpool and Arsenal, but we have the 5th highest net spend over the last 5 years and have massively outspent the likes of Forest, Bournemouth and Brighton.

 

5) Newcastle: £-350.18m
24/25: £17.73m
23/24: £-85.79m (7th)
22/23: £-141.69m (4th)
21/22: £-108.17m (11th)
20/21: £-31.47m (12th)
 

9) Nottingham Forest: £-217.62m
24/25: £-15.58m
23/24: £-37.2m (17th)
22/23: £-160.27m (16th)
21/22: £-5.07m (4th in Championship)
20/21: £500,000 (17th in Championship)

12) Bournemouth: £-135.96m
24/25: £-49.67m
23/24: £-104.27m (12th)
22/23: £-68.88m (15th)
21/22: £10.08m (2nd in Championship)
20/21: £76.96m (6th in Championship)

16) Brighton: £-75.75m
24/25: £-191.58m
23/24: £69.1m (11th)
22/23: £70.82m (6th)
21/22: £3.25m (9th)
20/21: £-29.6m (16th)

 

 

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Matt1892

[Lush Vlad]

Some context is needed though. Net spend is always iffy using us. Seeing as we barely had any saleable assets and we needed a total overhaul. Which we’re still not close to achieving. 
 

Brighton’s scouting network is the envy of basically the whole world. They have sold players for eye watering profits. 

 

Forest took a points deduction after spending beyond their means. So were always going to tighten up a bit.  It has finally clicked this season. Is what they’re doing and how they play sustainable? I have my doubts. 
 

Bournemouth is a fair one. Again, much smarter recruitment than us and they have a superb manager. Who is being tipped for one of the top clubs. Again, are they going to do it consistently and over multiple seasons? They did also get £60-70m for Solanke. 
 

As someone else said. The new owners inherited a shell of a club. No youth development, coaching staff, players that we could sell for decent money, loads of ageing players who aren’t good enough on bloated contracts etc.  

 

We still should have been a bit more aggressive and ruthless with our selling, mind. I don’t think that’s being smart after the event in hindsight, either. Plenty were saying it. 

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Lush Vlad

[NEEJ]

6 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

The downside of it all is that Howe clearly has an excellent eye for a player, and is a first class coach.  His lack of ruthlessness could be an issue  

I think we'll see far more ruthlessness if the quality additions arrive. 

[Matt1892]

Again though, you can make the argument about the state of our squad that Howe inherited if it was about closing the gap with the likes of City, Arsenal and Liverpool, but it doesn’t stack up when we consider the clubs we are battling with, considering 2 of them were in the Championship.

 

Forest Championship squad

 

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/team/squad/_/id/393/league/ENG.2/season/2021

 

Bournemouth Championship squad

 

https://www.espn.co.uk/football/team/squad/_/id/349/league/ENG.2/season/2021

[Andy]

18 minutes ago, Matt1892 said:

We can blame PSR for not being able to compete with City, Liverpool and Arsenal, but we have the 5th highest net spend over the last 5 years and have massively outspent the likes of Forest, Bournemouth and Brighton.

 

We're only below one of those teams in the table, to be fair. And we just beat them last week. 

 

Comparing spend would be more relevant if we were languishing miles behind them like Man Utd. 

 

Those teams are over performing and we're about on par. 

[Kid Icarus]

Brighton: 9th, 6th, 11th with Chelsea as their piggy bank 

 

Forest: Championship, 16th, 17th while getting a points deduction for breaching PSR.

 

Us: 11th, 4th, 7th

 

Stacks up pretty well imo.

 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by Kid Icarus

[Lush Vlad]

34 minutes ago, NEEJ said:

I think we'll see far more ruthlessness if the quality additions arrive. 

Tend to agree. I think we’ll start to see his ‘favourites’ moved on  

 

Longstaff has been frozen out. Almiron was similar. I think Pope is the next for that treatment, too. 
 

[JoeyBartoon]

The club certainly needs to improve in terms of moving players on. Howe has proven himself excellent at getting the best out of players, so there’s really no excuse for not addressing this. Murphy, while he's been outstanding this season, should ideally be sold this summer while his value is high. Imagine all promoted clubs would be keen on him. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

14 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Tend to agree. I think we’ll start to see his ‘favourites’ moved on  

 

Longstaff has been frozen out. Almiron was similar. I think Pope is the next for that treatment, too. 
 

People forget that Tonali was a Longstaff replacement and just happened to get banned for a year. The idea Howe wanted to run Longstaff every game is just not true. 

[Matt1892]

46 minutes ago, Andy said:

 

We're only below one of those teams in the table, to be fair. And we just beat them last week. 

 

Comparing spend would be more relevant if we were languishing miles behind them like Man Utd. 

 

Those teams are over performing and we're about on par. 

These are the clubs we are competing with for a Champions League spot though, which is why we they are being compared.

 

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

2 minutes ago, JoeyBartoon said:

The club certainly needs to improve in terms of moving players on. Howe has proven himself excellent at getting the best out of players, so there’s really no excuse for not addressing this. Murphy, while he's been outstanding this season, should ideally be sold this summer while his value is high. Imagine all promoted clubs would be keen on him. 

Do we need to sign two RW then? 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Do we need to sign two RW then? 

We would if we sold Murphy.  But I think the idea of selling Murphy at peak value in the summer is valid - he’s unlikely to repeat this season. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Just now, Matt1892 said:

These are the clubs we are competing with for a Champions League spot though, which is why we they are being compared.

 

 

It think it’s very hard to say what par is for us because of the massive variance in quality through our squad. I really struggle to say how good we ‘should’ be because some of our players are fundamentally good and some are terrible. 

[TheBrownBottle]

Both Howe’s eye for a player and ability to coach is why I’m not at all concerned about a big clearout in the summer - and not just of squad players.  I wouldn’t blink if he sold a couple of ‘purples’.  I’d hope that there won’t be too much shitting of pants should that happen. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

We would if we sold Murphy.  But I think the idea of selling Murphy at peak value in the summer is valid - he’s unlikely to repeat this season. 

I just think this strategy is easy to point to but very hard and controversial to execute. Almiron was in the form of his life, Wilson had played himself into the England squad. Neither were likely to fetch big money. I guess Murphy is not quite in that bracket but he’s shown himself to be a very valuable squad player. 
 

I don’t really disagree with the theory of getting the max value we can, but it’s not easy to run a club while clearing out anyone who’s in form. 

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by AyeDubbleYoo

[Lush Vlad]

2 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

People forget that Tonali was a Longstaff replacement and just happened to get banned for a year. The idea Howe wanted to run Longstaff every game is just not true. 

Yeah. The word favourites being punctuated was referencing this. I think/hope once we start to get better options or we want better options. Howe will move players on. 
 

Sounds harsh typing it out like that. But football at the top level should be. 

[The College Dropout]

Can he coach a side that can win consistently without a high press? 

[The College Dropout]

Net spend is a shit metric. 
 

Wages and squad cost more important. 
 

Brighton rank well at both.  But Brighton aren’t consistently competitive and have sharpened their approach over what 15 years? 20? We are in year 4 of this thing. 

[Lush Vlad]

He should be backed properly in the summer and then we will find out. 
 

Unless there is some monumental drop off now and no European competition whatsoever. He has earned that at least. 
 

I learned my lesson after severely doubting him after the Brentford defeat. I think we’ll regain some level of form and by all accounts. We will spend a decent amount in the transfer window. 

[J7]

26 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Do we need to sign two RW then? 

I’d say so, or at least a forward who can also play there if we get a first choice RW in. 
 

I think the points on struggling to get players out is valid. PSR clearly hasn’t helped with that either. I’d say we’ve missed the sweet spot with Bruno too. I mean it’s good that we still have him, but how much would he fetch now? Certainly not the £100m release clause the club expected to be triggered in the summer.

[TheBrownBottle]

32 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

I just think this strategy is easy to point to but very hard and controversial to execute. Almiron was in the form of his life, Wilson had played himself into the England squad. Neither were likely to fetch big money. I guess Murphy is not quite in that bracket but he’s shown himself to be a very valuable squad player. 
 

I don’t really disagree with the theory of getting the max value we can, but it’s not easy to run a club while clearing out anyone who’s in form. 

 

 

 

I agree, though neither needed to bring in big money to offer the chance to make some serious signings.

 

In an ideal world, we don’t have these conversations- but we know the shite hand we’ve been dealt.  I’d like Howe to be given the chance to finalise a squad rebuild - and given the finances, that’s going to involve selling